Monte Carlo is the main residential and resort area of the Principality of Monaco, a sovereign city state ruled for centuries by the Grimaldi family. Monaco is situated on the French Riviera, about 13km northeast of Nice, and about 16 km from the Italian border.

Monte Carlo is one of the four traditional quartiers (districts) of the Principality, the other three districts being Fontvieille, Monaco-Ville (Le Rocher), and La Condamine. Since the middle of the 19th century, Monte Carlo has been a magnet for the rich and famous, and a popular tourist resort; attractions include the Casino and the Monte Carlo Opera House (also known as Salle Garnier), which are housed in the same building. Monaco-Ville boasts Monaco Cathedral and the Prince's Palace. Monaco is also the home of the Monte Carlo Rally, which began in 1911, and the Monaco Grand Prix, which began in 1929. Most of the Grand Prix circuit is located within Monte Carlo.

Cornwall is a culturally distinct region of England, with its own traditional language, flag and Celtic identity. It is the southwest-most English county, forming the tip of the peninsula that stretches out below Wales. Bounded to the east by the county of Devon, its most westerly point is Land's End. Its only city is Truro.

The landscape of Cornwall was dramatically reshaped by the tin and china clay mining industries, which have left excavations and spoil heaps that can be seen from miles around. Fishing and agriculture were also important to the traditional Cornish economy.

Because of its extensive coastlines and mild climate, Cornwall is a popular tourist destination. Resorts include Newquay and St Ives on the northern coast, and Penzance and Falmouth on the southern coast. Cornwall is also known for its moorland, such as Bodmin Moor.

Cornish (Kernowec) belongs to the same linguistic group as Welsh and Breton. During the 20th century various attempts were made to revive the language, and although it has never regained its role as a true community language, it is spoken fluently today by about 300 people.

Daphne du Maurier has said that the fictional Manderley, ancestral home of Maxim de Winter, was based on two actual houses: Menabilly in Cornwall, and Milton Hall in Cambridgeshire. According to du Maurier, Manderley is essentially 'Milton in the setting of Menabilly'.

Menabilly is a Georgian manor house situated on the Gribben peninsula near Fowey on the south coast of Cornwall. It is the family seat of the Rashleighs, and was leased to Daphne du Maurier from 1943 to 1969.

Milton Hall, which Daphne du Maurier visited as a child, was built in 1594 and is the ancestral seat of the Fitzwilliam family. It is situated about three miles from Peterborough in what is now Cambridgeshire.

For readers of this period, the term 'Happy Valley' would have brought to mind the 'Happy Valley set', a group of mostly upper-class British expatriates who settled in the Wanjohi valley area of Kenya from 1924 onwards. The 'set' became renowned for decadence and hedonism, their notoriety reaching a peak in 1941 with the murder of Lord Erroll, an event documented in the book White Mischief and the film of the same name. A negative portrayal of the Happy Valley lifestyle is also given by Juanita Carberry in her memoir Child of Happy Valley.

The Côte d'Azur is the name given to the Mediterranean coastline of southeast France, extending roughly from the Franco-Italian border westwards to Toulon. It includes the Principality of Monaco which is divided into four traditional quartiers (or districts), one of which is Monte Carlo. British people often refer to the Côte d'Azur as the French Riviera.

Since the 18th century, the French Riviera has been a popular holiday destination for the British upper classes and royalty. During the first half of the 20th century, it also attracted many writers and artists, including W. Somerset Maugham and Pablo Picasso. Later on, it became the haunt of various celebrities in the world of film and popular music, including Brigitte Bardot and Elton John. Amongst the resorts of the Côte d'Azur, Monte Carlo, with its world-famous casino, has a particular reputation for attracting the wealthy and famous.

There is no record of a specific hotel named the Côte d'Azur in Monte Carlo, but Daphne du Maurier may have had a luxury hotel such as the Hotel de Paris Monte Carlo (founded 1863) in mind when she created the Côte d'Azur.

Palm Beach (or Palm Beach Island) is a town in Florida which was developed by the millionaire industrialist Henry Morrison Flagler in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Hotels were opened from 1894 onwards, and the area became a sought-after holiday destination for America's social and cultural élite, including the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, U.S. presidents and European nobility.

Claridge's is an up-market, five-star hotel situated in London's Mayfair. It was established in 1812 as Mivart's Hotel and, following development, became one of the premier London hotels. It was re-built in its present form in 1894, since when it has been the hotel of choice for many aristocrats and celebrities.

When Peter II of Yugoslavia and his wife were in exile at Claridge's during World War II, their suite was designated Yugoslav territory for one day in 1945 so that their son, Crown Prince Alexander, could claim to have been born on Yugoslav soil.

Sospel is a small town, not far from Monte Carlo, in the Alpes-Maritime deparment of southeastern France. It dates back to the 5th century, and became a walled town during the 14th century. Only a tiny remnant of the walls has survived to the present day.

Menton (Mentone in Italian) is a small coastal town, situated between Monaco and the Italian Riviera, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France. It is both elegant and picturesque and has earned itself the nickname la perle de la France ('the pearl of France').

The town developed as a tourist attraction from the 19th century onwards and quickly became a favourite with the British and Russian aristocracy.

Blois, situated on the banks of the River Loire in central France, is the principal town of the French department of Loir-et-Cher. It is the site of the Château de Blois which was once occuped by King Louis XII.

Cannes is a chic coastal town situated between Nice and Fréjus on the French Riviera. It is a popular tourist destination and the site of the Cannes Film Festival which was established in 1946, and is held annually (usually in May).

The Grand Canal is one of the principal waterways in Venice, a city in northeast Italy consisting of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges.

In the past the main means of transportation on the canals was the gondola, a flat-bottomed boat. Nowadays, gondolas tend to be reserved for tourists, while residents use water buses (vaporetti) and private water taxis.

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" She began to talk about a walking holiday they had taken once, years ago, in the Pennines "

The Pennine Way at Torside Clough (Derbyshire) - Credit:
John Fielding

The Pennines is a mountain range sometimes described as 'the backbone of England'. It consists of two areas known as the North Pennines and the South Pennines. The boundaries of the range are not clear cut, but it runs roughly from the northern edge of the Peak District in the south to the Tyne Valley in the north. The North Pennines' eastern and western boundaries are Darlington and Carlisle, while the eastern and western boundaries of the Southern Pennines are the towns of West and South Yorkshire and the Forest of Rossendale.

It is possible to walk the whole length of the Pennines along The Pennine Way National Trail which extends for 268 miles. Plans for the trail were put forward in 1935, and its final section was opened in 1965. Click here to see a map of the Pennine Way National Trail.

The Pennine Way across Fawcett Moor (North Yorkshire) - Credit:
John Lucas

The Andes is a vast mountain range on the western coast of South America. It extends through seven countries, from Venezuela in the north, through Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, to Chile and Argentina in the south.

As Manderley is located around Menabilly near Fowey on the south Cornish coast (see bookmark p.1), we can assume that 'forty miles up channel' means 40 miles to the east of Fowey, and that the 'channel' is the English Channel.

Edgecoombe may be based on the ancient manor house known as Edgecombe Manor in the village of Milton Abbot in Devon, located between Launceston and Tavistock.

There is also a coastal town called Salcombe in the district of Devon, about 65 miles from Fowey by road.

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is based at Burlington House on London's Piccadilly. It is a privately-funded institution whose function is to support and foster the visual arts.

Amongst its many activities are the regular hosting of temporary-loan exhibitions, and an annual summer exhibition of new art. Traditionally, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is an important event in London's cultural calendar.

Bond Street is an up-market shopping area in the West End of London. It runs from Piccadilly to Oxford Street via Mayfair, and consists of two sections: Old Bond Street and New Bond Street. In the past it boasted many fine art and antique shops, but today it is most noted for its fashion boutiques and top-class jewellery shops.

As discussed in bookmark p.25, in English and other European languages, it was customary to distinguish between the Near East, the Middle East and the Far East. The Far East included such diverse areas as China, Japan, Korea, the Indian sub-continent and the whole of Southeast Asia (as confirmed by the two areas which Colonel Julyan names).

Singapore is a southeast Asian city-state which consists of 63 separate islands. It is situated off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. When Rebecca was written in 1938, Singapore was a British colony, part of the British Empire which by 1922 included 458 million people, one fifth of the world's population. As a result, many British individuals would, like Colonel Julyan, have had the opportunity to work in a large variety of countries under British rule. China was not part of the empire, but Britain played a large part in controlling its economy, a situation which has been described by some historians as 'informal empire'.

Bloomsbury is an area of Central London in the London Borough of Camden, which is famous for its many garden squares and its educational and healthcare institutions, such as University College, London, and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

It is also renowned for its connection with the circle of influential writers, intellectuals and artists known as the Bloomsbury Group, important members of which were Virginia Woolf, Vanessa and Clive Bell, E.M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, and John Maynard Keynes.

Hampstead is an affluent and attractive area of north-west London, situated in the Borough of Camden. Traditionally, it has been known for the richness of its cultural and intellectual life, and for the large area of hilly parkland known as Hampstead Heath.